---
title: 'A MASTERPIECE | Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 4 Animation Breakdown'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=4FyN1f0uTtY'
video_id: '4FyN1f0uTtY'
date: 2026-06-14
duration_sec: 1230
---

# A MASTERPIECE | Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 4 Animation Breakdown

> Source: [A MASTERPIECE | Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 4 Animation Breakdown](https://youtube.com/watch?v=4FyN1f0uTtY)

## Summary

This video provides a detailed breakdown of the animation in Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 4, praising its visual spectacle and the immense effort by the production team. The host analyzes key scenes, highlights the work of specific animators and directors, and offers both praise and minor criticism.

### Key Points

- **Episode Overview** [0:00] — The episode is described as a high-priority Sakuga festival with incredible visuals, especially in the second half.
- **Staff List** [1:09] — Storyboards by series director Goshono, episode directors Risa Suzuki, Yusukeuchi, and Goshono. Four chief animation directors: Yusk Yajima, Hiomi Nea, Sota Yamazaki, and Takushi Mizu.
- **Key Animators** [2:25] — Stacked list including Tadashiramatsu, Shinsaku Koua, Kisuchami, Hakugo, Hon, and Koh Hiota, with around 40 key animators.
- **First Half Analysis** [3:13] — First half had inconsistent animation but strong composition and directorial ideas, like diagetic piano and flashback integration.
- **Second Half: Maki vs. Kukuru Squad** [6:49] — Praised for aesthetic, aspect ratio usage, creative color, and hand-drawn characters. Animated by Izkisuchami with quick cuts and volumetric drawings.
- **Nakamura Homage** [10:24] — The rest of the fight is a homage to Yotaka Nakamura, with sequences by Mochm Mo and Julian Bentley featuring speedlines, kinetic sparks, and cubic effects.
- **Cinemascope Section** [15:56] — Aspect ratio change used purposefully with muted colors and higher contrast, featuring stylized shots and direct references to Naruto vs. Pain.
- **Conclusion** [19:55] — The episode is considered insane even by JJK standards, a visual peak due to talented artists and creative direction.

### Conclusion

The episode is a visual masterpiece, showcasing the best of JJK's animation with creative direction and top-tier talent, likely a peak for the season.

## Transcript

Jiujutsu Kaisen season 3 episode 4 was
the episode. It was the episode the
production team went all out for putting
in lots and lots of effort and resources
a lot more so than usual. And the
results spoke for themselves. This
episode was absolutely ridiculous,
especially the second half. It was one
of the most visually interesting things
across all of JJK. And I hope you
understand how monumental a feat like
that is. It looked incredible. Right
from the get- go, you could tell that
this was about to be special. It had
that big episode feel, if that makes
sense. And that's saying something
because in a production like JJK, nearly
every episode has a big episode feel.
Like come on, when has JJK ever looked
normal? I guess the point I'm trying to
make is high priority Sakuga Festival.
The big big episode, whatever you want
to call it, this episode was one for the
history books. And as such, you guessed
it, let's break down the visuals. Make
sure to subscribe. This episode fried my
brain to the point where I can't come up
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subscribe. the buttons right there. It
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also become a member of this channel.
Members get at least two exclusive
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emojis, shoutouts, and more. Just go
down there and press the join button. As
always, let's go over the staff list
first. Starting with the storyboards,
which were once again handled by series
director Goshono, making this the fourth
consecutive episode he has solo
storyboarded for this season with many
more on the way if the leaks are to be
trusted. Goshono's unsurprisingly
fantastic storyboards were processed by
three episode directors, Risa Suzuki,
Yusukeuchi, and Goshono himself. And the
overall direction was again
unsurprisingly stellar. I'll talk about
it in detail in a bit obviously, but
long story short, it was Koshono
reiterating just how good he is at
non-action storyboards, just in case
some of you suffer from short-term
memory loss and forgot what last week's
episode was like, and shutting down all
talk of him not being good at action
storyboards. Also, of course, his
amazing storyboards were processed
wonderfully by the episode directors.
Shout out to them as well. Over on the
animation front, we had four chief
animation directors. The two character
designers Yusk Yajima and Hiomi Nea.
Character artist extraordinaire Sota
Yamazaki and JJK regular Takushi Mizu.
Four animation directors and three
assistant animation directors, which is
neither good nor bad in a vacuum. But
considering the sheer amount of movement
this episode had to offer, aka the sheer
number of frames that had to be
corrected and the complexity of the
shots, it's actually quite decent. More
about the animation. The key animator
list for this episode was absolutely
stacked. Industry-leading talent galore,
which isn't exactly new for a project
like JJK, but that doesn't make it any
less insane. Mega veterans like
Tadashiramatsu and Shinsaku Koua,
industryleading names like its
Kisuchami, Hakugo, and more. exciting
new talent like Hon and Koh Hiota around
40 second key animators on cleanup be
duty because it is a sichimo line
production at the end of the day this
episode had it all now yes I can't
exactly call this episode perfect by
nitpicky eyes won't allow that but this
episode was really really well animated
that's the headline here not some of the
jank I'll point out in a bit please
don't let my nitpicking cloud your
judgment this episode was amazing with
all that being said let's finally do the
thing you guys clicked for let's go
through this episode scene by scene.
Unfortunately, I have to gloss over the
first half of this episode a bit. Not
only was the main bulk of animation
muscle packed into the second half, the
first half wasn't the most consistent
thing in the world. Let's put it that
way. It had issues. First things first,
though, composition sense, Koshono has
an unfair amount of it. Every shot was
incredibly interesting to look at. Even
when there wasn't much happening
animation wise, I have said all of this
before, but it bears repeating. His
framing is always spacious and dynamic.
There are layers of complexity. There's
a pronounced sense of space. There are
exaggerated perspectives. As per usual,
Koshono is allergic to framing things
normally. And as per usual, I love that.
We also had so many cool directorial
ideas, introducing the piano as a
diagetic audio cue, including this
flashback as a part of the present scene
instead of simply cutting to it and
making it look distant and blurry to
show how things aren't the same anymore.
That man is a genius. Speaking of
flashbacks, the flashbacks throughout
this entire episode or this season in
general had this bloody, choppy look
that I loved. It made them seem less
like a different, unrelated scene and
more like a hazy recollection of
memories, which is the whole point.
Really good stuff. Back to the scene at
hand. Animation wise, there wasn't all
that much going on. It was above
average, but for a high-profile
production like Jiutsu Kaisen, it was
typical, if that makes sense. This fight
was cool, though. It was very stopand go
with quick unorthodox cuts. But unlike
most of Yuji versus Utah, this actually
worked in my opinion. The timing felt
right. It conveyed the chaos of the
whole thing well. Plus, the strategic
use of close-ups and slow motion shots
allowed them to save some of that
animation power for later. Shortly
afterwards, we got this eerily lielike
ragd dolling followed by this meticulous
and mostly consistent acting sequence
presumably animated by Aya Suzuki. Very
subtle stiffness aside, you could feel
the weight of every small action, the
movement of the fingers, the hair
motion, the body mechanics. It was
incredibly well animated fundamentally
speaking. Also really well-drawn short
hair. A really cool stylized sequence
drawn by Iki then brought us to the beat
scene animated by Tadashiramatsu which
is quite funny because he also animated
a melancholic beat scene for the
Chainsaw Man movie. The acting here
wasn't over the top, but as you would
expect from the penmanship of a veteran,
the fundamentals were on point. The
motion was heavy with each action being
accompanied by the perfect amount of
weight distribution, plus the three to
four tone liquid animation, beautiful
drawings thanks to C Hiro Mini's
corrections, top-notch backgrounds, and
that gorgeous compositing shift made
this scene incredibly cinematic. Oh, and
also Goshono Storyboard's skirt,
obviously. Following the beat scene, we
got some cool action adjacent shots.
Lovely effects there followed by a solid
close-up and a large amount of
background animation. Really fun stuff.
Now, with all that being said, here
comes the uncomfortable part. Like I
hinted at earlier, this section wasn't
perfect. It had issues. I know some
people on Twitter get upset at me for
pointing out things they themselves
don't have the eyesight to notice, but
it is an animation breakdown, so deal
with it, I guess. Was this walk cycle
fairly inconsistent with distracting
shifty lines? I'm afraid so. Was this
other walk cycle fairly stiff,
especially around the arms, despite the
cool volutric background work? I'm
afraid so. Do May and Maki being dragged
by Yogi melt a fair bit? I'm afraid so.
Do some of these shots clearly suffer
from subpar second key animation? I'm
afraid so. Did they linger on this
non-animated zoom for a bit too long?
I'm afraid so. You get the idea. Really
cool, really creative, but not perfect,
which is quite on brand to be honest.
Anyway, let's now move on to part B, aka
the start of this episode. Before we get
to the action though, let me get this
out of the way. I loved the overall
aesthetic during the Maki Kukuru Squad
fight. The compositions, the aspect
ratio usage, the creative color used,
the general look and feel of the whole
thing. It was insanely good. I know
people who expect their anime
adaptations to be strictly one to one,
and the entire population of mainland
Japan apparently hated this fight, but I
personally loved it. The cool visual
ideas and composition choices, the
tremendous drawings, the dissonant
soundtrack choices, so good. All of it
gold sticker from me. Anyway, the first
minute or so of the action was animated
by Izkisuchami, and it was incredible.
First off, that's a lot of hand-drawn
characters. Of course, not all of them
are animated. Moving that is, but still,
drawing that many cell components is
tedious work, and that's doubly true
when they actually move. This shot, for
example, this is obviously a throwaway
character who almost certainly doesn't
even have a design sheet. But through
conservative yet meticulous line
placement, Sujigami made his face and
movement feel incredibly volutric and
alive, which is something he excels at.
More about the action. This fight used a
ton of quick cuts, but once again, it
worked. It flowed well. Partially due to
the incredible animation and partially
due to Sujigami, presumably modifying
the storyboards a bit based on his own
preferences. The shots had so much
volume both in terms of the composition
and the drawings themselves. There were
layers of mob characters, both static
and animated. Plus, the drawings and
backgrounds were about as
three-dimensional as you'd expect from a
Goshon Sujigami sequence. This windup
looked amazing. Maki moving was actually
animated while the characters in the
back were a static cell layer being
panned across the screen. And we then
got a quick overhead shot followed by a
side profile complete with these really
cool blood effects with varying degrees
of opacity and another overhead shot.
Like I said, quick cuts. Of course, the
actual movement was on point throughout.
The lines and contours were masterfully
placed and the drawings were incredible.
Even a simple shot of Maki taking a step
had fantastic forcehortening and volume
control. Also loved Koshono going full
Gohans with this underground shot. Now,
yes, it is practically impossible to
animate 50 guys moving constantly. It's
a weekly TV episode, not a Ghibli movie.
But Koshono and team came up with clever
ways to get around that. Be it the cell
parallaxing, be it strategically placed
still shots, be it going down the
idiosyncritic shorthand drawings route
instead of proper character models,
something shot sequence did a lot of. It
didn't feel like the background
characters were unnaturally stiff. I
remember that being an issue in an
episode from season 2, but not this time
around. Also, of course, shorthand
drawings or not, animating a rotation
with multiple moving characters is an
insanely difficult thing to do. And so
is animating these buttery smooth body
mechanics and these insanely complicated
warped compositions. So, props to B. Not
the biggest fan of the non-animated zoom
on these mobs. But overall, really well
animated sequence. Of course, we can't
go over every single shot given the
confines of time, but really good work.
We then got a Hayat Kurosaki sequence
and the sheer density of the effects was
insane. Why have one layer of gorgeous
thick smoke when you can have another
and another and another and another and
another? Has some eye-catching liquid
effects. Has some tone liquid animation
that's like the most beautiful thing
ever. Has some handdrawn debris so large
scale that it almost counts as
background animation. More liquid and
smoke. Such an insane sequence all
around. It'll probably get overshadowed
by the insanity that followed, which is
a shame because just look at it. It's so
cool. From this point on, the episode
went full Yotaka Nakamura. The rest of
the fight was one big unapologetic
homage/lo letter to the cube man, and it
was perfect. I was genuinely surprised
by how convincing Goshono's Nakamura
impression was. The first sequence here
was animated by Mochm Mo, which is
obviously a pen name. It's not a real
person. And I'm pretty sure I know who
that is, but let's not delve on that
stuff. The scene started with some
incredibly cool rawl lookinging smoke
and satisfying fabric and hair animation
followed by this section, which again is
extremely Nakamura. The speedline
background conveying a never-ending
sense of space, these almost comical
poses, the energetic fabric animation,
these slow animated zoomins with
exponential forcehortening. Fantastic
stuff. The background animation here was
insane. The shapes were almost identical
to the way modern Nakamura draws
backgrounds. Plus, the kinetic sparks
were a nice addition. Loved this
exchange. Fast motion buffered perfectly
by the zoom into her hand. It's not all
one speed. There's variation in the
tempo. There's rising and falling
actions. Again, amazing. Really cool
lifelike acting here followed by some
large scale background animation and
this amazing rotation. It's very short,
but the animator had to drop both
characters in unorthodox poses at every
perspective between the starting and
finishing points. I hope I don't have to
explain why that's an incredibly
difficult thing to do. [music] By the
way, I loved how in the midst of all
this insane movement, they literally
zoomed into a still frame. I don't think
it's meant to be comedic, but it cracked
me up. Now, yes, some of you might say
that stuff like this clashes with the
tone this episode was trying to convey,
and there is some validity to that
complaint. However, in my mind, it
wasn't a sad, hate-filled massacre.
Rather, it was a triumphant moment where
Maki broke free of the metaphorical
shackles around her ankles. And as such,
from that point of view, I felt like the
upbeat tone worked perfectly. Anyway,
back to the action. This guy's ability
was visualized extremely well. The force
against Maki was conveyed through
expanding concentric circles on the
ground hair. Another Nakamura build
storyboarding choice followed by
constant energetic fabric and hair
animation. And speaking of force, this
sequence was amazing. The way each
muscle on her body was animated to show
the sheer weight she was under.
Fantastic understanding of weight and
anatomy. Reminded me of that one shot
from Ghost in the Shell. Also worth
mentioning, the head and fabric
animation throughout the section was
absolutely stellar. It made every
action, even the simple ones, feel heavy
and powerful. Also also worth
mentioning, this shot was incredible.
Loved the strong foreshortening effect
and the organic shading. Yusuke Yajima
corrections if I'm not mistaken. This
guy's attack was pure Nakamura goodness
with tens of individually drawn fists
complete with actual animated shadows
literally descending from the sky and
raining down on Maki conveyed via a
large amount of effects and debris
instead of actual physical impact. Did I
mention this fight was one big Utaka
Nakamura reference? It was overall a
very very impressive sequence by a mo
which is definitely not just someone
else. Was every drawing perfect? No.
There were a few rough shots, most
likely due to second case scattering,
aka poor cleanup, [music] but all things
considered, it was ridiculously good.
Moving on, some incredible Sotamazaki
corrections and a slightly inconsistent
bit of acting then brought us to Maki
versus Na, and it too was one big Utakan
Nakamura reference. We started with a
quick exchange of strikes followed by
this eye close-up. And not only was the
eye wonderfully drawn and animated, you
could see a separately animated
reflection of the action on it. This was
in turn followed by another strike
exchange. And neither of these two
exchanges were looped. Every strike was
uniquely animated, which is quite cool.
Also love how the camera actually moves
there. They had to draw the speedline
backgrounds in a manner in which they
had two opposite directions and met in
the middle, allowing the camera to pan.
We then got a few slow motion shots
ensuring the viewer doesn't get
overwhelmed. And this sequence, which I
know I'm repeating myself, but come on,
it doesn't get more Utakan Nakamura
built than that, does it? The spiky
effects, the literal Utapon cubes with
the appropriate timing and everything.
The dynamic unidirectional background
animation, the slow body movement with
extremely fast-paced head and fabric
animation, even the use of moving after
images and solid one color backgrounds.
Hey, I think Nakamura should get
royalties for this episode. Anyway, this
scene was animated by Julian Bentley.
Makes sense given the tremendous volume
control on Maki and he had to
effectively animate eight different
characters here. I counted seven
different uniquely animated now each
drawn from a different perspective. We
then got proto sequence which included
some gorgeous debris and smoke
animation. This really cool effect where
they split the background into several
layers and moved them up separately and
another after image based shot. I
counted four uniquely animated
characters here. This gorgeous close-up
then brought us to more action because
of course we weren't done. We had a ton
of Nakamura pill effects followed by Hon
sequence which started off with this
mind-blowing shot. Maki's body hair kept
rotating meaning he had to continuously
animate Maki from all sorts of
perspectives and this was followed by
some large scale background animation
with the camera actually moving along
with the cell layers and changing angles
because the shot wasn't complicated
enough as is. I guess now was basically
a smear throughout the section. His
movement was too fast for our eyes. But
again, like always, we were then
presented with slower paced shots
because visual buffers are important.
Also, quick shout out to the literal
animation time sheet that shows up for
the split second. [music]
Loved the smooth camera movement here.
The slow partial rotation/an animated
zoom in was really fun to look at. We
then got some really cool shapes and
effects drawn by Kajino and these fun
shots with shifting lines on the
background meant to convey speed and
motion. This shot was amazing as Maki
closed in towards the camera. The
implied distance between her head and
the rest of her body increased thanks to
the forcehortening giving it this
three-dimensional look. Also, the actual
drawings were amazing with those blacked
out eyes. Two different styles of
lingering smoke effects then brought us
to the cinemascope section. And it
wasn't a cheap gimmick. [music] This
time around, it was actually used with
purpose. The entire style of compositing
changed the second those black bars
appeared. The vibrance and saturation
went down. The colors became more muted
with war for war for warmer tones taking
over. And the color contrast went up.
Even the character drawing stood out.
This entire section felt like a
different scene if that makes sense.
Near the start of the sequence, we got
this stylized na shot almost certainly
drawn by Soyazaki. Those thick inky
lines looked amazing and the proportions
of the face kept stretching and
squashing giving it a satisfying sense
of flow. We then got these shots which
were presumably animated by Nakaya onen
given the elongated facial structure and
they looked gorgeous. The placement of
each line was purposeful and the overall
aesthetic sense was off the charts. Some
cool effects followed most likely drawn
by Shinsaku Kosuma given those geometric
edges and that trademark timing wherein
the structure was intact in one frame
and completely gone in the next. This
shot was straight out of Naruto versus
Spain with the Looney Tunes like smeari
body language. Not exactly a surprise
since this entire setpiece both in the
manga and the anime was a reference to
that fight. The anime version that is
because Kay is a massive sakuga nerd.
This shot was cool. Some solid
pre-animation. Although I'm not the
biggest fan of the texturing on the
animation layer. Funny because Naruto
versus Spain actually didn't have those
textures but it looked weird too. I
guess it's just a losing formula. This
really cool shot with multi-layered
reverse background parallaxing, some
solid drawings and cool effects then
brought us to another direct
utakanakamura reference. Those high
energy flickering effects on the wall
followed by the cubic to pre exploding
out as straight out of concrete revolio.
We then got what I think is Daniel Kim's
sequence with the background effects
having these alternating vertical lines
which later transformed into actual
smoke. this buttery smooth punching
animation and this part where everything
besides Maky's mouth froze. We then
returned to our regular aspect ratio and
compositing and got these highly
ambitious partial rotations. Like I said
earlier, rotations are inherently
difficult to animate, especially when
the character has an unorthodox pose.
And that's doubly true for slow
rotations like these. Think about it. If
the rotation is fast, the animator has
to draw less frames. But if the rotation
is slow, the number of intermediate
frames between point A and point B
skyrockets, making it incredibly
difficult to maintain volume and line
consistency. [music]
With all that in mind, the sequence
wasn't the most consistent thing in the
world, but it was an admirable effort.
Not sure if it was Daniel Kim as well.
[music] We then got the big punch with a
brand new buildup, four different
angles, and a couple of meticulously
animated slow motion shots, including
this X-ray view of his skull getting
crushed. I believe parts of the section
were animated by its suchami since it
was his idea to begin with. Such a
fantastic sequence all around filled
with insanely highlevel talent. Even
Hakugo was in there somewhere. I'm not
entirely sure where. Perhaps some of the
effects, but I'm not sure. But he was
there. Insane stuff. And with that, the
fight came to a close. Daniel Kim's
presumed penmanship served as the
immediate aftermath, which was then
followed by a hefty amount of slightly
stiff but ultimately solid character
acting, partially animated by China, and
finally by the same composition as the
first shot we saw, making it a full
cycle moment. Amazing stuff. And that
was the episode again for the millionth
time. This was insane, even by JJK's
standards. A group of incredibly
talented artists working under a
tremendously creative director and not
horrible production conditions usually
tend to make magic and this was no
different. Of course, I am looking
forward to the rest of the core, but I
wouldn't be surprised if this ends up
being the visual peak. I heard the last
episode is supposed to be incredible as
well, so who knows? Exciting stuff
either way. And that's it. A special
thanks to N03, Amir, the Galas 90, and
Shiki for becoming tier three members.
And until next time.